[applause] senator harris ok. All right. Its good to be home. Its good to be home. Bisons. S, president frederick, members of the board, distinguished faculty, thank you for this incredible honor. And to the class of 2017, congratulations. [applause] and to youris families and friends who encouraged you and help you up, thank you for all you did. Lets hear it for them. [applause] senator harris ive had the honor of speaking at many commencements, but this one is particularly special for me because decades ago, i sat just thed use it now, feeling embrace of our Howard Family, as family at its best shares common values and aspirations, a family shares hardships and a connected history. A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another. A youngly includes woman who worked her way through as al and is graduating published poet. [applause] family harris our includes the fourth Rhodes Scholar and howard history. [applause] senator harris it includes a woman who got elected to an Advisory Neighborhood Commission at 18 years old, the youngest elected official in d. C. History, and she is your future president. [applause] senator harris and our family also includes those who came before you, graduates. Thurgood marshall, zora neale dr. Lasala fall, mr. I coates,rdan, tanehis elijah cummings, and mayor kasim reed. You are ready to join the ranks. You are finally at your commencement, and i want you to look around and catch it this moment. Holdit in your heart, and it in your mind. You are now looking at people you will read about for the trailblazing work they do. You are looking at the faces of friends who will one day ask you for their children. You may even be looking at someone you will grow your family with his one or both of you do not know it right now. Its going to happen. Also, look back on the experiences you have already had. Remember those first days on the quad moving into the injury [applause] senator harris learning how to navigate that howard run around so you can get that dorm room for signup up for a class. I know. Remember or even maybe try to late nights ate found theirs and those other latenight at the punch out for lj. Ror el ray. Above all, above all, above all, remember you are blessed because wherever you came from, wherever you came from, you now have the gift, of great, great a Howard University education. [applause] you are also part of a legacy that has now entered and derived indoors and thrived. D and endured when the doors of education were close to black students. The few recognized potential and capacity of young black men and women to be 150ers, but over the last years, howard has into word and thrived howard has injured howard has endured and thrived. Students havers, been challenged here and provided with the confidence and the tools to soar. Since this school was founded, howard has awarded more than 120,000 degrees. It has prepared and produced thousands of black lawyers and doctors, artist, writers, dentist, pharmacists, social workers, and engineers. Most recently, howard has even partnered with google to bring more black students into the technology industry. [applause] senator harris and it certainly prepared me for a career in public service, starting with my worst ever political race, which was for freshman class representative of what was then called the liberal arts student council. So at this moment, when voices at the highest level of our government seem confused about the significance and even the constitutionality of supporting and hbc you, i think you here at Howard University. [applause] now you are all official measures of what i call the role model club. And it is a pretty exclusive club. My distinguished fellow commencement on a raise. The class ofors of 1967 today celebrate their 80th anniversary and who marched and fought for justice when jim crow ,as still the law of the land and it includes people like Charles Hamilton houston and thurgood marshall. [applause] senator harris who were among my and your inspirations for going to law school. History has proven that each generation of howard graduates will forge the way forward for. Ur country and our world now, graduates, it is your turn. Lets look at the world you are now entering. You are graduating into a very different time than it was when you arrived a few short years ago. You are graduating into a time when we see a revival of the failed war on drugs and a renewed reliance on mandatory minimum print is prison when younga time people who were brought to america as children fear a midnight knock on their door, a time when throwing millions of working people off their Health Insurance to gift tax the top 1 is considered a victory to some, a time when we worry that a latenight tweet could start a war, a time when we no longer believe the words of some of our leaders and where the very integrity of our Justice System has been called into question. Graduates, indeed, we have a , and its not a fight between democrats and republicans. Its not rich versus poor or. Rban versus rural this is a fight to define what itd of country we are, and is a fight to determine what kind of country we will be, and it is a fight to determine if we are willing to stand up for our deepest values because lets be clear we are better than this. [applause] knowor harris and you what im talking about. From the time you all arrived on this campus, you participated in of theh anniversary march on washington, and you stood up and joined that fight for justice. You protested from the streets of ferguson to the halls of the United States congress. You have lived the words of James Baldwin. There is never a time in which the future in the future in which we will work on our salvation. The challenge is in the moment and the time is always now. Now,d, the time is always and because you are a howard graduate, the bar is high, which means you must be on the thetline, as you must be at avalanche. The first to raise your hand. You must leave. The motto of its university at just veritas veri tas et utilitas. Truth and service. Afraid oftimes we are falling short. Its not that were afraid of what we should do. Its that the barfield so high. It takes so much time and effort to reach it, so much threat, and so many tears, and being human, we sometimes fall short, and thats ok, but because you went to Howard University, you have a responsibility to keep reaching for that bar and to keep of 2017,so, class proud members of the role model club, in these unprecedented times, you must ask how will i serve . How will i leave you i thought the pieces of advice on how to and that question. Project. This is. , and you dont need a big. Itle to make a big difference to lead and thrive, you must reject false choices. You can dotaught me anything and you can do everything. At howard, you can be a Football Player and a valedictorian. You can be a budding Computer Scientist and a poet. 4. 0, and check on the hill, and still find time to party on the weekend. [applause] the day,arris back in i would go down to the National Mall to protest the united state investment in apartheid south africa, and i intend in the United States senate. I chaired the economic society. I was on the howard debate team, and i pledged my dear sorority. Sisters are here this afternoon, so the notion of false choices that howard scott has has carried me , first as my career the District Attorney of san francisco, as the attorney general of california, and now i United States that effort, and was that people with either soft on crime for tough on crime, but i knew we should be smart on crime. Told executors do not need to focus on recidivism. But ethier, i launched an initiative to help firsttime offenders Reenter Society and not go back to prison. Prosecutors should not focus on the needs of children, but we created a bureau of childrens justice that took on elementary school. Ruancy so, graduates, i share all of this with you to make the point that there is no limit to what you can do and that you must reject false and choices. You can advocate for environmental justice, and you can be a ceo who commits to cutting your company cost carbon footprint. You can march for workers on a picket line and be their voice inside the department of labor. Call for greater diversity in the arts and entertainment and you can be, like howards own to roger p henson, on the screen bringing to life those Hidden Figures p. Like howards own taraji hensen. You can march on the streets and focus on black accountability because the reality is on most matters, somebody is going to make a decision, so why not let t be you . Because if we are going to make progress anywhere, we need you everywhere. And sometimes to make change, youve got to change how change is made, so do not be constrained by tradition. Do not listen when they say it cant be done, and do not be by what has been when you can create what should be. Like James Baldwin said, the time is always now, so no false choices. My second piece of advice is that you must speak truth. Let me be clear speaking the truth is different from telling the truth. Telling the truth means separating fact from fiction. The earth is round. The sky is blue. Howard university is the real h. U. [applause] senator harris its the truth. Truth,ike telling the speaking the truth means you must speak up and you must speak out. Even when you are not being asked, and even when it is. Ncomfortable or inconvenient so let me give you an example. Just a few years ago after i left howard, i was working as a prosecutor during the crack epidemic of the 1990s, and it was the height of Gang Violence in los angeles, and california had passed these laws known as gang enhancement laws, which longer sentences if a person was affiliated with a gang. Because these laws were new, prosecutors were trying to figure out how to prove these cases in court. One day, i was sitting in my office at the courthouse and i heard coworkers outside my door talking about how they were going to prove certain people who were arrested were gang affiliated, so i listened to this conversation, and i heard them mention the neighborhood where the arrest had occurred. I heard them talking about the way folks which rest at that location. I heard them talk about what kind of music they were listening to, and hearing this conversation from my office, i knew what i had to do, so i stepped out of my office, and i looked at them, and i said, hey, guys, you know that corner you are talking about and that neighborhood . Well, i had people who live there. You know the clothes you were talking about that they were wearing . My family members just like that dress like that. And that music and im about tapete myself i have a of that music in my car right now. So they looked up at me a little embarrassed, but needless to say, they realized that they needed to think differently about who does what and who does , so howard encourages us and expects us to use our ,oice, and i promise you graduates, as you leave this place, i promise you you will often find that you are the only one in the room who looks like you. You will often find you are the only one in that room who has had the same experiences you have had, and you are going to feel very alone at that moment. But wherever you are, if you are in a courtroom, a board room, a tech incubator, in washington or wichita, you must remember this alone. Are never we are all in that room with you every single time every single day. [applause] senator harris so the time is now. We must speak the truth. Here is my third piece of advice. I know story. You dont need a big title to make a big difference. After my second year of law school, i was a summer intern at the Alameda County das office, and there had been this big drug bust, and i was working on a case, and i realized that among those arrested was an innocent bystander, but it was late on a friday afternoon, and most people had gone home, which meant the case would not get called until monday. That meant, of course, that this would havestander been held all weekend. I started to look into the case, and i learned that she also had young children. No innocent person should spend a weekend in jail, and i knew what it would mean if she could not get home, including that she could even lose her children, so i sat right there in the court room, and i waited. And i waited. And i waited. And i told the clerk we have to call the case, and i pleaded to the judge to come back. I would not leave until the judge finally gave in, and when that happened, with the swipe of a pen, this woman got to go home to her children. Before i wouldrs run a major prosecutors office, before i would create policies and write legislation that would be adopted on a state and national level, and i did not realize it at that time, but that friday afternoon, in that courtroom, in oakland, california, that woman taught me that when you see something in front of you that is wrong, you can just go ahead and do what you know is right, and it will make a difference. Even if nobody but just you and she knows it. [applause] senator harris so the time is always now. You dont need a big title to make a big difference. So, graduates, as you begin this next and so exciting phase of your life, i have one request of you when you get your diploma , take a good look at it. Remember what is on it. Veritas andss utlitas. Truth and service. That is your duty, the duty of your degree. That is the charge of a howard graduate. , ifever you want to do next you want to design the latest app or cure cancer, if you want to be a lawyer or dentist or teacher or accountant, let your guiding principle be truth and service. At a time when there are americans, disproportionately black and brown men, trapped in a broken system of mass incarceration, speak truth and. Erve at a time when men, women, and children have been detained at airports in our country sadly because of the god they worship, speak truth and serve. Immigrants have been taken from their families in front of schools and outside courthouses, speak truth and serve. Of incredible technological advances, when we are dreaming of a mission to mars and unraveling the mysteries of the brain and entrepreneurs even in my home state are talking about flying cars, speak truth and serve. Because we need you. Our country needs you and the world needs you. Allison, your future president , said to me, lord, we cant wait until were in charge. I cant either. Neither can our world. So get out there and do your thing. Your Howard Family always be with you every step of the way. Congratulations graduates. [applause] what am i doing here . More to the point, what are you doing here . If you dont mind me saying so, this is a strange ending to an ivy league education. Four years in these historic calls thinking great thoughts, and now you are sitting in a stadium that are for football listening to an irish rock star give a speech that is so far mostly about himself. What are you doing here . Actually, i saw something in a paper last week about kermit the commencement address somewhere. One of the students was complaining, i worked my ass off for four years to be addressed by a sock . [laughter] ass you have worked your off for this. Youve been buying, trading, and selling everything youve got in this marketplace of ideas, the intellectual hustle. Your pockets are full. Your parents are empty. Now youve got to figure out what to spend it on. The going rate for change is not cheap. Big ideas are expensive. Ofversities have its share big ideas. Benjamin franklin had a few. So justice brennan. Did judith. N, so what a gorgeous girl. If you areew that going to be good at your word, lived up to your ideals and education, its going to cost you. My question, i suppose, is whats the big idea . Whats your big idea . What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your sweatectual capital, your of the of the walls university of pennsylvania . Cspans washington journal live every day with the news and policy issues that impact you. , theg up sunday morning career of robert mueller, appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Virginiassity of president ial Recordings Program researcher can hughes will discuss the history of past president s who secretly recorded conversations in the oval office. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern. Join the discussion. Education secretary duncan to was the betsy devos Commencement Speaker at the. Hing Cookman University while she delivered her speech, she was booed by graduates